Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological and organizational developments within the agricultural and food sector are badly geared to societal needs and expectations. In this article we briefly present a toolkit for moral communication within the food chain. This toolkit is developed as part of a European research project. Next, we discuss what such a toolkit can bring about, given the characteristics of the present day agricultural and food sector and its wider context. We defend that the toolkit can be seen as one of the mechanisms that can help enterprises in the agricultural and food sector to be accountable. It should, however, be complemented with other mechanisms, first, to empower the wider public and, second, to stimulate a dialogue, on a more equal footing, between public authorities, citizens, and economic actors.

In knowledge economies, the prevailing belief is that research and innovation are crucial for societal progress. The call for 'responsible' research and innovation is, however, an indication that the link between science and technology on the one hand and societal progress on the other is less unequivocal than many would like to think. This article wonders why the relationship between knowledge economies and 'responsible' research and innovation is not self-evident. It, consequently, proposes glocal sustainability research (GSR) -and an appropriate process architecture for GSR -as a translation of responsible research and innovation (RRI) and it suggests a type of knowledge arena -and some institutional preconditions for its institutionalisation -as a breeding ground for RRI. IntroductionThe European Commission pleads for responsible research and innovation (RRI) in order to respond more effectively and urgently to the grand societal challenges, such as climate change, ageing population, food, water, materials and energy safety, public health, and security (European Commission 2013; von Schomberg 2013, 51-74). Why this plea? In the first part of this article, this call for 'responsibility' is linked to the observation that the sustainability performance of knowledge economies leaves, indeed, much to be desired and this despite the fact that knowledge economies dispose of huge amounts of scientific knowledge and technological know-how. It, consequently, looks for possible reasons for this astonishing observation. In the second part, it provides some preconditions for research and innovation systems to become 'responsible', namely (a) taking local needs, values, and opportunities as starting points to consider which combinations of new and old disciplinary and practical knowledge and know-how are appropriate to respond effectively to local manifestations of global challenges and (b) checking whether this normative content complies with global ethical principles of strong sustainability, equality, and a-growth, for example, as defined in the Open Working Group proposal for Sustainable Development goals (http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgsproposal, consulted 15/12/2014). Finally, it puts a particular type of knowledge arena (Cornell et al. 2013, 60-70) forward as a breeding ground for RRI.

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In the first phase of the research project Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow's Society (www.nanosoc.be), the research consortium explored a variety of futuristic visions or technoscientific imaginaries. This exploration took the form of a Policy Delphi, adapted to the particular objective of jointly constructing nano-imaginaries, taking participants' personal visions of possible future applications and societal issues as a starting point. The participants were nanoresearchers, as well as societal experts and primary involved citizens. In this article, the authors describe the theoretical frame that inspired their methodological approach, present the analytical results obtained, and bring some reflections to the fore that arose as a result of the performance and analysis of this Delphi-exercise.